Considering that the major part of greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide, there is a global concern aimed at reducing carbon emissions. Additionally, major consumer countries are looking for alternative sources of energy to avoid the impact of higher fossil fuel prices and political instability in the major energy supplying countries. In this regard, different policies could be applied to reduce carbon emissions, such as enhancing renewable energy deployment and encouraging technological innovation and creation of green jobs. There are three main support mechanisms employed by governments to finance renewable energy development programs: feed-in-tariffs, tax incentives, and tradable green certificates. Considering that many of the promising technologies to deploy renewable energy require investment in small-scale energy production systems, these mechanisms could be used to enhance renewable energy development at the desired scale. Employing a carbon emission tax or emission trading mechanism could be considered ideal policies to mitigate emissions at the lowest cost. The comparison of feed-in-tariffs and renewable portfolio standard policies showed that the former is good when a policy to develop renewable energy sources with a low level of risk for investors is considered. However, the latter is an appropriate policy when a marketview policy is applied by the government.

2.

Abolhosseini, Shahrouz

et al.

College of Engineering, TEMEP, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea.

Considering that the major part of greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide, there is a global concern aimed at reducing carbon emissions. In addition, major consumer countries are looking for alternative sources of energy to avoid the impact of higher fossil fuel prices and political instability in the major energy supplying countries. In this regard, different policies could be applied to reduce carbon emissions, such as enhancing renewable energy deployment and encouraging technological innovation and the creation of green jobs. This study compares three main support mechanisms employed by governments to finance renewable energy development programs: feed-in-tariffs, tax incentives, and tradable green certificates. Considering that many of the promising technologies to deploy renewable energy require investment in small-scale energy production systems, these mechanisms could be used to enhance renewable energy development at the desired scale. Employing a carbon emission tax or emission trading mechanism could be considered ideal policies to mitigate emissions at the lowest cost. The comparison of feed-in-tariffs and renewable portfolio standard policies showed that the former is good when a policy to develop renewable energy sources with a low level of risk for investors is considered. However, the latter is an appropriate policy when a market view policy is applied by the government. Finally, considering technological progress and the cost reduction for power generation by renewable energy sources, we suggest that support mechanism policies should be reconsidered from the financial point of view. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The increased concerns about climate change have made renewable energy sources an important topic of research. Several scholars have applied different methodologies to examine the relationships between energy consumption and economic growth of individual and groups of countries and to analyze the environmental effects of energy policies. Previous studies have analyzed carbon emission savings, using renewable energy usage as an individual source or in combination with traditional sources of energy (e.g., hybrid plants) in connection with lifecycle analysis methods. It is shown that after a certain period, economic growth leads to the promotion of environmental quality. However, econometric modelling critiques have opposed the results of these studies. One reason is that the effectiveness of governance-related parameters has previously been neglected. In this research, we analyze the impact of renewable energy development on carbon emission reduction. We estimate a model to evaluate the effectiveness of renewable energy development, technological innovation, and market regulations in carbon emission reduction. The empirical results are based on a panel data estimation using the EU-15 countries data observed from 1995 to 2010. The elasticities of CO2 emissions are estimated, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of each parameter. The findings show that the effects of a negative climate change could be mitigated by governance-related parameters instead of economic development.

Electricity consumption will comprise an increasing share of global energy demand during the next two decades. In recent years, the increasing prices of fossil fuels and concerns about the environmental consequences of greenhouse gas emissions have renewed the interest in the development of alternative energy resources. In particular, the Fukushima Daiichi accident was a turning point in the call for alternative energy sources. Renewable energy is now considered a more desirable source of fuel than nuclear power due to the absence of risk and disasters. Considering that the major component of greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide, there is a global concern about reducing carbon emissions. In this regard, different policies could be applied to reducing carbon emissions, such as enhancing renewable energy deployment and encouraging technological innovations. Two main solutions may be implemented to reduce CO2 emissions and overcome the problem of climate change: replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources as much as possible and enhancing energy efficiency. In this paper, we discuss alternative technologies for enhancing renewable energy deployment and energy use efficiency.

Energy security as a dominant factor in international stability is of great importance for major economies. The global energy market with its current level of supply and demand relies on energy sources in the Middle East, Caucasus, Central Asia and Russia. After the Fukushima disaster nuclear powers in Europe view renewable energy sources as a serious alternative. Europe’s energy vulnerability has deteriorated due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. However, renewable energy sources are not large enough to replace nuclear power completely. This trend will continue with climbing demand especially in the natural gas sector as clean energy. In this research, Caucasus and Iran are considered the main sources and routes for energy transmission to the global market, including Europe. Caucasus plays a key role in bridging Europe and Asia. Also, Iran is an alternative for energy transmission to Europe after lifted sanctions. As part of the European active supply diversification policy Iran has capacity to reduce Europe’s energy dependency on Russia. However, changes in US new administration America First Policy is harmful for the EUs energy security. Caucasus aims to catch a large share of the European energy market since the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline has started operations and Iran is also trying to expand its market to become a sustainable source of energy for major consumers. Therefore, Iran and Caucasus are considered reliable energy suppliers for Europe. In this regard, we analyze the best motivation for changing the direction new suppliers’ energy policies towards Europe and suggest alternative solutions to compete with rival countries in order to enhance energy security.

As information and communication technologies have spread throughout the world, countries have realized the importance of investing more and more in building ICT-relevant infrastructure. However, for fostering further information and communication technology (ICT) development, countries are in need of an analysis tool for measuring their advancement in ICT-relevant infrastructure. Motivated by a variety of attempts to generate measures of ICT development, this study aims to develop an index that quantifies the level of ICT-relevant (e-infrastructure) deployment. In particular, this study introduces two e-infrastructure indices that are composed of six components, namely electricity, telecommunication, Internet, processing power, broadcasting, and human capital. Each component is generated from one or more indicators. This composition provides the possibility of tracking each of them separately and to identify strengths and weaknesses of each country with respect to the ICT-relevant area of the component. It will also help pointing out the source of failure in developing the ICT-related infrastructure and to develop policies for enhancing ICT-related infrastructure accordingly. For the index computation, the study uses a parametric and a non-parametric computation method rather than the traditional approaches which are frequently used in literature. In addition to this, this study also aims at analyzing the indices ranking differences among OECD countries and Middle East & North Africa (MENA) countries, using data for the time period between 2000 and 2007. The ranking of the countries shows that MENA and OECD countries differ significantly in their e-infrastructure development. However, a small group of MENA countries are ranked higher than a few OECD countries. Those countries belong to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

7.

Al-Hammadany, F. H.

et al.

Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Seoul National University, South Korea.

Heshmati, Almas

Department of Food and Resource Economics, Korea University, South Korea, and Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Korea University, South Korea.

Internet accessibility is positively correlated with infrastructure development and nature of government policies. Though Iraq has shown considerable increase in Internet connectivity, it constitutes only 10 % of its population. In this study, the significant factors determining the use and non-use of Internet have been identified and analyzed. The results revealed that human development, human capital, institutional and legal environment, existing technologies, government policy making and income levels affect the Internet accessibility. The non-Internet users mainly comprised from 12-25 years age group. Similarly, high school and diploma students constituted significant proportion ofnon-Internet users. Lack of awareness and poor access to Internet facility were quoted as the most significant factors that resulted in the poor Internet accessibility which were supported by the used multinomial logit model. Low income level of the people resulted in non-use of Internet. The use of Internet was found to be highest among those with high level of education. Hence, the measures like provision of ICT based training programs, effective government policy for prioritizing Internet in education sector and allowing most advanced Internet technologies in e-governance and increased efforts for enhancing human development and human capital would enhance the rate of Internet accessibility in Iraq.

The Internet is considered to be today's most advanced technology and a key to progress of communication and exchange of information, goods, services and technologies. Since its introduction during the late 1960s, the Internet has led to the creation of opportunities and conditions of development both for the developed and developing nations around the globe. Not all nations though welcome this particular tool of world connection. Iraq is facing huge challenges in increasing Internet penetration and usage and changing the traditional way of communication. However, this is a difficult task as there are many factors that define this transition process. This issue and more shall be better presented in this study. Through the use of a suitable approach, this study aims to explain the determinants of Internet use in Iraq. The results indicate that while the people of Iraq are eager to adopt this technology in order to reach out to the world, a number of factors like lack of adequate resources, insufficient incentives and encouragement from the government and some social inhibitions are not allowing this technology to become a public domain.

This paper introduces new indices quantifying country's level of e-infrastructure deployment. These indices comprise six components, which include several indicators, and are based on parametric or nonparametric methods. They improve existing indices. Based on index calculations, variations between countries, regions, and over time are analyzed. The data used covers MENA and OECD countries, 2000-2007. Analysis results identified areas, in which countries need improvements, and showed that some MENA countries outperformed some OECD countries. The rankings based on the indices differ only slightly. Additionally, the parametric method-based index produces equally distributed value ranges and shows an overall e-infrastructure improvement over time.

In this study, we intend to examine the information and communication technology (ICT) firms from a financial perspective. The relationship between capital structure and cost of capital (COC) is investigated in a simultaneous equation framework. On the one hand, we relate international diversification to the firm’s capital structure, and on the other, we test their individual and collective inferences on the combined debt and equity COC. We expect a negative correlation between international diversification and higher total and long-term debt ratios, and a reduction in the overall COC.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of the deregulation of the Swedish banking industry in the mid-1980s, and the consequent banking crisis, on productive efficiency and productivity growth in the industry. An unbalanced panel of Swedish banks is studied over the period, 1984 to 1995. A total of 1275 observations are analysed for 156 banks that were observed for between two and twelve years. We adopt a translog stochastic frontier model to estimate the labour-use requirements in terms of the variables, loans, deposits, guarantees, number of branches and total inventories, together with the year of observation. The inefficiency effects in the labour-use frontier are modelled in terms of the number of branches, total inventories, the type of bank and year of observation. The technical inefficiencies of labour use of Swedish banks were found to be significant, with mean inefficiencies per year estimated to be between about 8 and 15 per cent over the years of study. However, the confidence interval predictions for these inefficiencies were found to be quite wide.

This study did an in-depth analysis of multidimensional poverty in rural and small towns in Ethiopia. As social well-being or poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon, using a multidimensional measure of poverty helps circumvent problems surrounding the conventional measures of poverty and helps show clearly the realities of households. In this line, our analysis used six dimensions with 14 indicators to construct a multidimensional index of poverty using first rounds of Ethiopian Rural Households’ Socioeconomic Survey data set. The study also employed a factor analysis for determining relative weights in computing a multidimensional index and did an in-depth analysis of stochastic dominancy of poverty for different segments of society. Besides, a comparison of the extent of poverty using the conventional measure of poverty and the multidimensional approach was also done. The results reveal that intensity, severity, and depth of poverty vary considerably across the two measures. Moreover, demographic, regional, and household heads’ characteristics are major factors in determining poverty.

Since the early 1990s, the employment structure of organized manufacturing industries in India has undergone substantial changes with steep rise in the use of contract workers in place of permanent workers. This process has led to increased wage inequality, discrimination as well as concern of job insecurity in the labor market. The paper focuses on wage inequality between permanent and contract workers, since contract workers earn substantially lower wages than their counterparts. The study uses data at the individual level from a recent labor survey of organized manufacturing industries in the India. The lower wage earned by contract workers is largely due to cost cutting, rather than differences in labor productivity. The issue of job insecurity has been modeled in the form of a binary logistic model. The factors affecting job security are divided into productivity-related attributes such as level of education and skill, and institutional attributes such as labor market rules and regulations and union membership. Contrary to the general expectation, the study finds that permanent workers are more concerned regarding job insecurity than the contract workers.

Nature based tourism is the fastest growing tourism in many parts of the world. The attitude towards conservation of nature is measured by individuals' willingness to pay. This study has made an attempt to investigate the determinants of tourists' willingness to pay (WTP) for biodiversity conservation. The determinants include a combination of socio-economic and site-specific characteristics of tourists. The study was conducted in Sikkim, which is India's prime nature based tourism destination. Results show that willingness to pay is determined by the level of education and income of tourists. Among site-specific characteristics length of stay and number of spots are the significant determinants of willingness to pay. This empirical research is a valuable input to identify market segment among tourists, which might help to generate more revenue for biodiversity conservation in Sikkim.

Mongolian economy has evolved rapidly in recent decades. It has a number of particular features which makes it interesting to study from a development perspective. One is the landlocked condition which limits its development potential. Another is its high dependence on a few products and natural resources like minerals, energy and agriculture. A third is the large scale of its natural resources with its low population density. This report aims to present a detailed analysis of the abovementioned aspects of the Mongolian economy and its development. It sheds light on conditions for sustainable economic development in the country. The objective is to mobilize available resources to enhance Mongolia's self-sufficiency and reduce its vulnerability and dependency on its two economically, politically and militarily powerful neighbors. This is conducted in a descriptive and simple but illustrative way. The report provides general information about the Mongolian economy and society compared with its neighbors serving as reference for investors, planners and decision-makers. The report is divided into five main parts. The first part contains a general introduction to the economy of Mongolia. The second part is on the development and the role of the key economic sectors including agriculture, industry and services. The third part elaborates on the development and role of the mining and energy sectors in the development of the economy. The fourth part is an analysis of the international economic relations and the dependence on foreign countries. The last part is on the future directions of development. This report is expected to provide a complete picture of the national economy, its evolution, current state and future possible directions and potential. The empirical and illustrative part is mainly based on data at the aggregate national level, covering the last two decades but mainly the period from 2004 to 2009.

This study examines the correlation between childhood poverty and its influence on adulthood wage distribution, where childhood poverty refers to experience of poverty or poor family background during one's childhood. With the data from Korean Labor Income Panel Study, KLIPS, quantile regression technique and decomposition method are conducted to identify and decompose the wage gap between low (poor) and middle class income group along the whole current wage distribution, based on a simulated counterfactual distribution.The results show that, those who had been less fortunate during their childhood likely had less opportunity to gain labor market favored characteristics such as a higher level of education, and even earn lower returns to their labor market characteristics in the current labor market. This leads to a discount of about fifteen percentages points off of the wage on average in total for those with underprivileged backgrounds during childhood compared to those with the middle class background, and that disadvantage is observed heterogeneously, greater at the lower quantiles than the higher quantiles of the current wage distribution. Then this research contributes to the literature by providing a partial understanding of poverty in Korea and its possible causes, in particular, in form of poor family background or childhood poverty, with which the implication of intergenerational effect issue is considered.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine the correlation between childhood poverty and its influence on adulthood wage distribution, where childhood poverty refers to the experience of poverty or poor family background during one’s childhood.

Design/methodology/approach– With data from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study, a quantile regression technique and a decomposition method are conducted to identify and decompose the wage gap between low (poor) and middle class income groups along the whole current wage distribution, based on a simulated counterfactual distribution.

Findings– The results show that those who had been less fortunate during their childhood were also less likely to have the opportunity to gain labor market favored characteristics, such as a higher level of education, and even earn lower returns to their labor market characteristics in the current labor market. This leads to a discount of about 15 percentage points in the wage, on average, in total for those with underprivileged backgrounds during childhood compared to those with a middle class background. This disadvantage is observed heterogeneously, with a greater effect at the lower quantiles compared to the higher quantiles of the current wage distribution.

Originality/value– This research contributes to the literature by providing a partial understanding of poverty in Korea along with possible causes, including poor family background or childhood poverty, with which the implication of an intergenerational effect is considered.

This paper investigates the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and its causal relationships with economic growth and openness by using time series data (1971-2006) from China (an emerging market), Korea (a newly industrialized country), and Japan (a developed country). The sample countries span a whole range of development stages from industrialized to newly industrialized and emerging market economies. The environmental consequences according to openness and economic growth do not show uniform results across the countries. Depending on the national characteristics, the estimated EKC show different temporal patterns. China shows an N-shaped curve while Japan has a U-shaped curve. Such dissimilarities are also found in the relationship between CO2 emissions and openness. In the case of Korea and Japan it represents an inverted U-shaped curve, while China shows a U-shaped curve. We also analyze the dynamic relationships between the variables by adopting a vector auto regression or a vector error correction model. These models through the impulse response functions allow for analysis of the causal variable’s influence on the dynamic response of emission variables and it adopts a variance decomposition to explain the magnitude of the forecast error variance determined by the shocks to each of the causal variables over time. Results show evidence of large heterogeneity among the countries and variables impacts.

This study measures productivity growth using the Metafrontier Malmquist-Luenberger productivity growth index (MML index) method and decomposes the index. The results are compared with those obtained from the conventional Malmquist-Luenberger (ML) productivity growth index. MML has two advantages compared with the ML index. The former is able to consider undesirable output as a by-product of production which accounts for producer group heterogeneities. As a result, it enables separation and estimation of changes in the technological gap between regional and global frontier technologies. The proposed index is employed to measure productivity growth and decompose its components in 14 Korean industrial sectors during the period between 1981 and 2007. For the purpose of detailed analysis of policy effects, the study period was divided into three decades. The results show that technology innovation can be regarded as a more important factor of productivity growth, rather than efficiency change. The chemical and Petrochemical, Machinery and Transport equipment industries are treated as global innovators in the whole period. However, the result differs according to decades. It is found that the groups with higher energy efficient technology and profitability obtain a higher productivity growth rate in comparison with their low energy efficient technology industry counterparts. Policy implications of the empirical results are discussed.

25.

Chung, Yeimin

et al.

Department of Food and Resource Economics, College of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Korea University, Anam-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Republic of Korea.

In this study we will attempt to measure productivity growth at the industrial level using the Metafrontier Malmquist-Luenberger (MML) productivity growth index and dissect/analyze this index to reveal further information. The results will be compared with those obtained from the conventional Malmquist-Luenberger (ML) productivity growth index. Utilizing the MML-index has two advantages when compared with the ML-index: the first is that it is able to consider undesirable output as a by-product of production; and the second is that it can account for producer group heterogeneities such as production technology. Noting such advantages, we will model this study to achieve three objectives related to productivity, technology and policy effects. To separate the results of the productivity index, we estimate the changes in the technological gap between regional and global frontier technologies. The proposed index presents productivity growth and dissects its components into 14 Korean industrial sectors from 1981 to 2010. For the purpose of detailed analysis, we have divided the relevant period into three decades. The results show that technology innovation can be regarded as an important component of productivity growth, rather than merely efficiency change. Chemical and petrochemical, iron and steel and machinery are all treated as global innovators throughout the entire period. It is also inferred that the groups with higher labor productivity obtain a higher productivity growth rate as compared with their low labor productivity counterparts. Considering the heterogeneity of production technology and the time that policy is introduced, the policy implications of the results will affect the circumstances regarding investment in environmental technology.

This paper introduces a decomposition of the Malmquist productivity index into component indexes. The motivation is to derive an analogue of the decomposition of the Törnqvist index into productivity and quality change provided by Fixler and Zieschang (1992) to the Malmquist index. Since we employ no second order approximations, this decomposition requires additional structure, namely a generalized version of Shephard’s (1970) inverse homotheticity, which we dub subvector homotheticity. We show that subvector homotheticity is necessary and sufficient for our decomposition.

29.

Färe, R.

et al.

Department of Economics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, United States.

Grosskopf, S.

Department of Economics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, United States.

The external circumstances for universities have been changing rapidly. In order to be competitive, survive and flourish, universities have turned to external sources to generate revenues. The literature refers to this phenomenon as academic capitalism, defined as the involvement of colleges and their faculty in market-like behaviours, which has become a key feature of higher education finances in most countries. As a result, technology transfer, technological commercialisation, and patents via industry–university collaboration represent a source of financial rewards. This paper explores the determinants of financial rewards of universities sourced from academic engagement through industry–university collaboration in South Korea. We have found that technology transfer per employees working at technology licensing offices, participation of engineering faculty, patent approvals, and the number of firms with incubators within universities significantly contributes to university revenues. The following determinants of financial performance are unexpectedly not contributors to revenue: technological commercialisation using technology transfer, distinguished faculty and incentive rules for inventors. In the light of these findings, it appears that an entrepreneurial university program is likely to play a strong role in university finances in Korea.

The external circumstances for universities have been changing rapidly. In order to be competitive, survive, and flourish, universities have shown a growing enthusiasm to generate financial revenues externally. The literature refers to this phenomenon as academic capitalism, defined as the involvement of colleges and faculties in market-like behaviors, which has become a key feature of higher education finances in most countries. As a result, technology transfer, technology commercialization, and patents awarded via industry-university collaboration represent a source of financial rewards. This paper explores the determinants of financial rewards of universities sources from industry-university collaboration in South Korea. We find that among the determinants of financial performances, technology transfer per employee working at technology licensing offices, participation of engineering faculty, patent approvals, the volume of research funds, the number of employees, and firms in incubators within universities turn out to be significant contributors to externally sourced university revenues. Technology commercialization using technology transfer and incentive rules for developers are not statistically significant. In the light of these findings, it appears that an industry-university cooperation foundation program is likely to play a strong role in private university finances in Korea.

This paper analyzes the patent propensity as an outcome of innovative activities of regional SMEs. To achieve the aims, we apply robust regression analysis to estimate the models to test 5 research hypotheses using 263 firm level data located at Gwangju region in Korea. Our empirical results show that a firm's industry characteristics, such as machinery and automotive parts industry, is negatively related with propensity to patent innovation. Also, unlike expectations, the InnoBiz firms designated as innovative SMEs by the government are not performing differently than general firms. Only the CEO's academic credentials are positively related with propensity to patent. From the findings, we can conclude that patenting propensity is not directly related with a firm's characteristics but mainly to CEO's managerial strategy. Also, we cannot find evidence for policy effectiveness from public support given to InnoBiz firms as part of the state policy to nurture photonic industry to boost regional economic development. Given the lack of strong policy effects, a new industry policy should be considered to actively promote SMEs innovativeness.

34.

Haouas, I.

et al.

MSE - Université Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France.

Yagoubi, M.

Techno-Economics and Policy Program, College of Engineering, Seoul National University, San 56-1, Shinlimdong, Kwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742, South Korea.

This paper takes an in-depth look into the UAE economy as a model but also as a reminder of the struggles ahead. The findings support the fact that the UAE is facing an oil curse. Declining levels of total factor productivity, GDP volatility, negative returns on investment, and a labor force that is too reliant on government supply of jobs are among the many reasons that support the thesis. The UAE has made good progress in recent years to diversify its economy. However, the drivers of economic growth in the UAE are vulnerable to external shocks outside of the Emirate’s control. It is now critical that the UAE take steps to mitigate economic disruptions that might result from these shocks. In this case study the UAE economic performance is examined, and a data-driven roadmap for sustainable growth is suggested. The analysis shows that greater efforts are needed to stimulate the diversification of the production base by encouraging increased domestic, especially private, investment. Well-targeted policies should be adopted to accelerate reform and facilitate the involvement of the private sector in the economy.

Recent research conclude that the GCC economies have failed to address the oil curse. They are far behind other countries, especially those in the G7, which possess huge reserves of oil wealth but have undertaken economic diversification to correct the ill-effects of an oil curse. This paper takes an in-depth look into the UAE economy as a model but also as a reminder of the struggles ahead. The findings support the fact that the UAE is facing an oil curse. Declining levels of total factor productivity, GDP volatility, negative returns on investment, and a labor force that is too reliant on government's supply of jobs are among the many reasons that support the thesis. The UAE has made good progress in recent years to diversify its economy. However, the drivers of economic growth in the UAE are vulnerable to external shocks outside of the Emirate's control. It is now critical that the UAE take steps to mitigate economic disruptions that might result from these shocks. In this case study the UAE economic performance is examined, and a data-driven roadmap for sustainable growth is suggested. The analysis shows that greater efforts are needed to stimulate the diversification of the production base by encouraging increased domestic, especially private, investment. Well-targeted policies should be adopted to accelerate reform and facilitate the involvement of the private sector in the economy.

37.

Haouas, Ilham

et al.

Department of Economics and Finance, College of Business Administration, Abu Dhabi University, UAE.

Heshmati, Almas

Department of Food and Resource Economics, College of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Korea University, Korea and Soran University, Kurdistan Region.

To date, empirical investigations of trade liberalization, under the conditions of increasing returns to scale (IRS) and imperfect competition (IC), have either assumed or imposed the market and productive structures necessary for such a model. However, of the recent IRS/IC models used to simulate the effects of trade liberalization, none have empirically tested for the presence of increasing return to scale prior to the analysis. With Tunisian data (1971-2004) and rigorous test procedures, we investigate evidence of IRS at the industry level. Using an econometric approach based on the estimation of the translog cost function and its associated cost share equations, we identify the sectors characterized by increasing returns to scale. Analysis of the results shows that specification of the model is sensitive to inclusion of time trend representing technology. For most sectors, the model accounting for technology did not fit the data well.Estimation results without time trend interactions are different and most sectors show signs of increasing returns to scale.

This paper analyses the hiring and separation rates in Tunisia before and after the Arab Spring of 2011. Several models are specified to study employment decisions based on quarterly administrative firm level data over the period of 2007 to 2012. The data provides information about important firm characteristics such as industry sector, number of hiring and separation, total employment effects and composition of labour force by gender, managerial level and age cohorts. Six models are estimated to investigate hiring, separation, hiring rate, separation rate, mobility, and net-employment. The results indicate presence of continued risk factors in Tunisia’s labour market resulting from the global financial crisis in 2008 and the Arab Spring in 2011. Hiring was little changed during this time period, and the results suggest that factors that impact separation decisions remained present in Tunisia’s labour market. In addition, the paper looks at various social issues such as youth unemployment and infer on how more efficient policy actions that will further engage the private sector could result in more sustainable positive net-employment and increased labour mobility.

This paper specifies a flexible model of labour demand in Tunisian manufacturing industries. The model is further extended to incorporate a risk function part which allows identifying the determinants of both level and variations in employment. The risk function is important when designing public policies. It allows for the identification of industries suitable for targeting policies. The paper looks at the efficiency of the manufacturing industry in their choice of level of employment necessary to produce a given level of output. The results show that labour demand responds mostly to wages, followed by capital stock changes, and level of output.

In this qualitative sociological and quantitative economic policy paper, we start out from the assumption of a very recent European Commission Background paper on the ”Efficiency and effectiveness of social spending“, which says the effectiveness of social spending can be defined by the degree to which the realized allocation approaches the socially desired outcome. The conclusions listed in the Commission paper are found far reaching and not supported by the empirical data. We perform such an analysis, starting from advances in recent literature. A more encompassing sociological perspective on the issue and factor analytical calculations is presented, which supports our general argument about the efficiency of the Scandinavian model. The social quality approach provides an alternative perspective on welfare system analysis, focusing on public policies rather than social policies. The empirical evidence, suggests that in terms of the efficiency of the European social model, the geography of comparative performance include: the direct action against social exclusion, health and family social expenditures, the neo-liberal approach, and the unemployment benefit centred approach. Applying rigorous comparative social science methodology, we also arrive at the conclusion that in terms of the initial ECOFIN definition of efficiency, the data presented in this article suggest that apart from Finland and the Netherlands, three new EU-27 member countries, especially the Czech Republic and Slovenia, provide interesting answers to the question about the efficiency of state expenditures in reducing poverty rates.

The unprecedented deterioration of our global environment has increased the necessity of relying upon Green Economic policies as critical and effective environmental management tools. The current situation has stimulated extensive research and debate among global interest groups. This has fostered an ever-growing volume of literature that provides a picture of the best measures affecting the establishment of the Green Economy – including its development and outcomes. This paper provides a survey of the green economy in self-contained form and accessible to the non-specialist readers. First, it reviews the recent developments in green economy: its theoretical foundation, political background and developmental strategies towards genuine, sustainable development. Second, the circular economy, networks, organizations, policies, infrastructure and measurable expected effects are discussed. Third, the theoretical and empirical results and findings regarding the green economy and its practice do lead to a number of conclusions regarding measurement of improvements, achievement of outcomes and identification of causal effects. Finally, summaries of current and possible future Green Development tendencies with a focus upon directions, policy, organizations, capacity, areas and interventions are provided and extensions that can serve as optimal directions for future research and policy are suggested.

The unprecedented deterioration of the global environment has increased the necessity of relying on green economic policies as critical and effective environmental management tools. The current situation has stimulated extensive research and debate among global interest groups. This in turn has fostered an ever-growing volume of literature that provides a picture of the best measures affecting the establishment of the green economy, including its development and outcomes. This paper provides a survey of the green economy in a form that non-specialist readers will be able to understand. First, it reviews the recent developments in the green economy - its theoretical foundation, political background and developmental strategies towards genuine, sustainable development. It then discusses the circular economy, networks, organisations, policies, infrastructure and measurable expected effects. Since the theoretical and empirical results and findings regarding the green economy and its practice lead to a number of conclusions regarding measuring improvements, outcomes and identifying causal effects, the paper next discusses these. Finally, it provides summaries of current and possible future green development tendencies with a focus on directions, policy, organisations, capacity, areas and interventions and provides extensions that can serve as optimal directions for future research and policy.

This paper examines conditional convergence of OECD countries in gross domestic product (GDP) and health care expenditure (HCE) per capita. It extends the augmented Solow model by incorporating health capital to explain variations in output and expenditure per capita across countries. The issue of causality between GDP and HCE is investigated. The results show that HCE has positive effect on the economic growth and the speed of convergence. In the HCE model a regression of the speed of convergence on variables determining the rate of convergence show close link to the variables characterising the health care system of sample countries.

This study tests the conditional and unconditional relationship between income inequality and growth in the post-Second World War period using WIDER inequality database. Regression results suggest that income inequality is declining over time. Inequality is also declining in growth of income. There is a significant regional heterogeneity in the levels and development of inequality over time. The Kuznets hypothesis represents a global U-shape relationship between inequality and growth.

The increasing use of demand-side management, as a tool to reliably meet electricity demands at peak time, has stimulated interest among researchers, consumers and producer organiza-tions, managers, regulators and policymakers. This research reviews the growing literature on models which are used to study demand, customer base-line (CBL) and demand response in the electricity market. After characterizing the general demand models, the CBL, based on which the demand response models are studied, is reviewed. Given the experience gained from the review and existing conditions, the study combines an appropriate model for each case for a possible application to the electricity market; moreover, it discusses the implications of the results. In the literature, these aspects are studied independently. The main contribution of this survey is attributed to the treatment of the three issues as sequentially interdependent. The review is expected to enhance the understanding of the demand, CBL and demand response in the electricity market and their relationships. The objective is conducted through a combination of demand and supply side managements in order to reduce demand through different demand response programs during peak times. This enables electricity suppliers to save costly electricity generation and at the same time reduce energy vulnerability.

This volume is a collection of selected empirical studies on determinants of economic growth in Africa. Grouped into three parts, chapters examine the influence of financial sources and economic growth; sources of productivity growth; and prices, exchange rates and trade relationships with growth in regions in Africa or the continent as a whole. This edited book is authored by African experts in the field who employ diverse up-to-date data and methods to provide robust empirical results based on representative firms, household surveys and secondary country level data covering individuals or multiple countries on the continent. It contains a wealth of empirical evidence, deep analyses and sound recommendations for policymakers and researchers for designing and implementing effective social and national policies and strategies to prevent and to reduce poverty and its negative effects on poor households and in poor regions. The volume will be a useful resource for policymakers and researchers involved in promoting economic growth and fighting poverty. It will also appeal to a broader audience interested in economic development, resource economics, policies, economic welfare and inclusive growth.